


Of Man and Myth

by leezh



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Angst, Community: pacificrimkink, F/M, Gen, Pre-Canon, Prompt Fill, Tragedy, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-06
Updated: 2013-10-06
Packaged: 2017-12-28 14:44:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/993129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leezh/pseuds/leezh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone generally agrees that no one can operate a Jaeger and killed a Category III Kaiju on their own and come out okay. There was only so much a human brain can take. But what Raleigh Becket did, finishing Knifehead off with only one arm and immediately after such traumatic experience too, was just like the stuff made from legend.</p><p>Written for the Kink Meme, cleaned a bit for AO3. Prompt: "Raleigh Becket is a legend among pilots". A fic where Mako tries to piece together just who Raleigh Becket really is, based on the opinions and views of many, including her own memories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Man and Myth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Swordsoul2000](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Swordsoul2000/gifts).



When Mako was officially given the task of finding a co-pilot for Raleigh Becket, the man at the other side of the teleconference asked her if she was familiar with the name. She almost snorted out of the ridiculousness of the question, but she quickly caught herself. After all, her adoptive father was currently standing beside her, and she didn’t have to steal a glance sideways to know that Stacker Pentecost had already had his disapproved look on his face.

He never liked her being too close, but order’s an order, and even as _the_ Marshall, he still had to follow orders from his superior.

“Secure them a list,” he said after the teleconference ended and they were the only two remained inside the room. “I’ll tell Tendo Choi to give you full clearance.”

“Okay,” Mako said. “I just-“

“And-“ Stacker interrupted her. “I don’t want to take a look at the list and see your name anywhere else other than in the ‘prepared by’ section, Mako,” he added. “End of discussion.”

“But you said-“

“I know what I said.” _End of discussion._

Mako knew that she had already been dismissed and nothing she said would make him change his mind now. Maybe if the pilot in question wasn’t Becket, she would still had a chance, but since he was-

 _“You can’t, Mako. You just can’t. Any other pilot but him,”_ she filled in the rest of Stacker’s unspoken sentences in her head by remembering his expression.

She gritted her teeth. Fine, she thought. _I’ll make them a list and make you see._

-

Raleigh Becket. Of course she had heard the name. She had lived in a few Shatterdomes, and there, the majority of people could easily recite the names of every pilot – dead or alive – and pair them with their Jaeger. Becket's name didn’t come up as often as Herc and Chuck Hansen or the Kaidanovskys, but Mako had heard some of the older pilots (including Stacker) and crews referred to him over the years.

Of course Stacker didn’t like him. Mako knew that he used to oversee the Becket brothers himself, starting around nine years ago. Back then, the brothers were like rising superstars, successfully killing Kaiju with increasing speed and skill. Yancy the elder was known as the more reserved one as Raleigh was the overconfident, but both were on the same level in the manner of enticing troubles and provoking insubordination wherever they went. Soon enough, their popularity rose through the roof, but they were also the source of even bigger headaches. When it came to saving a possible million versus the guarantee of a handful people, the brothers would say ‘fuck the statistics’ and tried to do it all, priorities be damned.

True heroes, some would say. Others would comment that no one could save everyone forever, and they needed to accept that fact.

Stacker never said anything about the brothers in front of Mako as he never talked about work at home if he could help it, but she still managed to catch him that one time. 

Her class was dismissed early that day, so she decided that she would drop into his office unexpectedly to surprise him. She heard Stacker muttering something as she entered the room, and then of course she took a peek. No matter how fast Stacker thought he had kept the folder hidden from her sight, she knew right away what, or more specifically, who, he was talking about.

It was the confidential report regarding the Beckets, and Mako could still remember Stacker’s low voices, saying absent-mindedly to no one in particular. “God, help them. Someday they’re going to get themselves killed.”

And then, five years ago, one of them was.

-

Mako remembered Alaska. 

She was sixteen, already being legally adopted by Stacker and enrolled in the Jaeger Academy for nearly three years, yet she still lived in the apartment closest to the Anchorage Shatterdome as Stacker tried to keep her away from the Shatterdome life for a while longer.

That particular day, she was woken up to the sound of the TV. Glancing at the clock on her phone’s screen, Mako stifled a groan. It was even still too early to wake up for her earliest morning workout session, but she rose anyway. Rubbing her eyes sleepily, she stepped into the living room, expecting to see Stacker there, already busy with his tablet. 

Stacker liked to turn the TV on even though he didn’t actually watch it, simply because he liked the white noise. He said it helped him think.

But there was no Stacker anywhere in the room, only a cup of coffee which was left on the table, still half full too.

Mako instantly knew that there should be an emergency and she was best tuning into the news to find out what happened.

And so she did.

Part of her instantly hoping she didn’t.

Even though the camera was shaking so much and the footage was edited rather poorly, she recognized the Jaeger in the news right away. Gipsy Danger. 

She always adored that particular Jaeger. She thought that she was prettier than the rest, even among her other Mark III sisters, and she secretly loved to see how Gipsy Danger moved and fought: impulsive, just perfect for some unpredictable attacks but still powerful enough to guarantee victory. Mako knew the pilots were brothers but couldn’t quite remember the names. It was something that started with B or D, but right then she didn’t give a damn about it as she realized that Gipsy was in trouble.

She sat in horror watching its limb being torn off by the Kaiju. There was explosion, huge ones, flashes of white, the footage was shaken violently, and-

Mako just realized what the flashes were. _Oh, God, it’s one of the pilots – one of the brothers – that was ripped off from inside the Conn-pod-_

The following footage was a series of blur for Mako as she sat there stoned in place, remembering – trying hard not to – _No, don't, please no, please no, please-_

She couldn’t remembered anything else of that moment except that Stacker found her hours later – or maybe the day after, it sure felt like a really really long time – still rooted on the spot, crying all over and it was like she was back as that little girl with the blue coat and red shoes.

That was the day when she lost her family all over again.

-

Stacker told her that the other brother’s alive. Survived. Managed to finish the Kaiju off and brought Gipsy back to the coast all on his own.

 _Raleigh_ , she re-learnt and memorized his name then. Raleigh Becket.

He was all over the news the following days.

“Tragic Hero”. “The Fallen Brothers”. “Gipsy Danger, Lost”.

They began to speculate whether the Jaeger program had finally ran its course because the world had lost too many pilots already, and those like Becket who survived on his own? They didn’t know what to do with him, because, well, as far as they knew, there was no other.

“Little is known about the current physical and psychological state of the surviving brother,” the anchorman spit out words after words that made Mako want to throw something at the TV. “The world is waiting. Will Raleigh Becket ever be fit again to get back on yet another Jaeger?”

However, not that the man himself cared. In between her classes at the Academy, Mako heard that Becket walked out of the Shatterdome merely days after, refusing survivor benefits, quitting the PPDC, and then quickly disappearing like a ghost.

Desperate to know, Mako pestered Stacker for days.

“Is he okay?” she persisted, even as Stacker only stayed for a few minutes to tuck her in before heading back to the Shatterdome. “I refuse to believe you are unable to restrain him.”

Stacker’s response was silence in the dark. A long dead silence, before Mako could finally hear his reply. “He doesn’t need these entire media circus right now.”

After that, he kissed Mako’s forehead for her bedtime kiss, stood up, and then closed her bedroom door behind him, leaving her to battle with her sudden surge of emotion as the realization dawned on her.

Stacker never lied to her. _Clearly he is not okay._

It was only a year later that Mako learnt about Tamsin Sevier before she was able to picture the complete sentences. 

_“He is not okay. No one can be anymore, not when you have lost your co-pilot.”_

Raleigh Becket didn’t merely escape. Stacker had let him go.

-

Becket went under the radar for the next five years.

Mako had permanently moved into whichever Shatterdome Stacker was assigned to by then. She learnt a lot in the Academy, did her simulation with glowing one hundred percent success rate and still Stacker wouldn’t let her near a real Conn-pod. 

Jaeger pilots continued to be deployed and died, survived and came back damaged, but mostly just died, and no one else ever survived piloting a Jaeger solo after Alaska.

After a while, some just forgot that it could be done. The ones who remembered thought that it was an occurrence that must never ever be repeated.

“No one can operate a Jaeger and killed a Category III Kaiju on their own and come out okay”, one of the senior crews that she passed on the hallway gladly give his unwanted opinion to Mako after hearing what her latest assignment was. 

“His head must be so messed up,” another piped up. “There was only so much a human brain can take, Mako.”

“Yeah, but it was stuff made of legend, right?” yet another, this time a much younger one, joined in. “The way he finished Knifehead off with only one arm too? Man, it was way wicked!”

“You rude young man!” Susan, one of the eldest of the crews smacked the back of the head of the younger man. “What happened to Raleigh Becket isn’t something that you can just gush casually about. Have some respect, that poor man lost his brother and co-pilot while he was still drifting too.”

“Damn, you’re right,” the younger crew opened up his mouth again and earned yet another smack. “Who wants to drift with him again, eh?”

_Let him be. Bless his wary soul. Just let him be._

Mako could not hear it anymore. She excused herself in haste, making up excuses just to get away from there.

 _Yeah_ , she agreed. Who wanted to drift with Raleigh Becket and opened up their mind to such traumatic experience?

Except that she knew that she and Becket were similar in that aspect. Her mind was not a nightmare free zone after all.

Would it be better if none of them was ever stepped into a Jaeger?

-

After Tendo Choi gave her full access to the archives, and Mako spent countless hours watching the footage of the Beckets, studying everything about them. The brothers smiling to the camera, shining. Raleigh Becket, so, so young back then, teasing his brother then erupting into laughter. Mako watched their incredible sparring sessions and how after a while they would seem to be able to predict each other's next move and would just finish each other’s sentences.

The strong bond. And yet even stronger connection after the Drift.

And to suddenly have all of it taken away just like that-

_No one could operate a Jaeger solo. He must be so messed up._

_Let him be. Just let him be._

Mako was reluctantly watching the footage of Becket’s final battle in Anchorage when Herc Hansen joined her.

She turned, seeing the older Hansen standing behind her. “Do you know-“

“Yes. Not well, but enough. I had the honor to fight alongside him and his brother once.”

 _Yes, of course._ Manila. December 2019. Mako had the report somewhere, already gotten through the footage too, a few days ago.

“His final fight,” Herc referred to the paused footage of Alaska, “he was fueled with fury, can’t imagine him being able to think straight, yet you see how he finished that Knifehead bastard? A messed-up person wouldn’t be able to do that.”

So Herc had heard about the gossips that travelled around the Shatterdome then. Mako stayed silent.

“Don’t listen to those idiots,” Herc continued after a while. “Raleigh Becket is one of the best pilots I know.”

 _Is_. Of course Mako took notes of the tenses he used.

-

It took them a few weeks to get a lock on Becket’s current location. Stacker had gone to fetch him and Mako tidied up her report one last time, going through her candidate list again to make sure she didn’t miss anything.

That day was the day that she would finally meet the man himself. _The supposedly legend_ , Mako thought, because just like one, her knowledge and opinion of Raleigh Becket was collected from many stories told from various point of views, some romanticized.

She did not really know why, but even though she clearly knew that Raleigh Becket was still twenty seven, only six years older than her, what she had in mind was a much older man, scarred by the battles and losses which were too much to bear, leaving him too damaged to pilot a Jaeger again. So when the man finally stepped under the umbrella Stacker held out for him, Mako was completely taken aback by how young he looked. And his eyes. Kind eyes. Sad, but still with too much kindness in them.

Mako couldn’t help herself. She whispered to Stacker in Japanese, “He's not what I was expecting.”

“Better or worse?” Raleigh Becket talked back to her in her native language, surprising her furthermore with his amused smile and the slightest twinkles in his eyes.

“My apologies, Mr. Becket. I’ve heard so much about you,” came her reply.

But what she wanted to say was actually: _Better_. Definitely way better, because Raleigh Becket was no longer only a legend to her now. She had finally met him, met the man in person, and she now knew with more certainty (and hoped that she was right about it too) who his ideal co-pilot would be.

Herself.


End file.
